MCGINTY, KATHY s/t (Hamburger Records) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY. REAL CD VERSION W/ BONUS TRACKS COMING SOON, HOWEVER!!
You ever have that problem where you're in an internet sex chat room, and you make a date with some pervy girl for a phone sex session, and then when you call her up it's actually some jerk with a sampler loaded with a sexy female voice telling you things like "Taco Bell is sooo good?" Well if you did, chances are you're one of the crank call victims on this extremely funny and fucked up cd-r. We guarantee, if you hear this stuff you'll die laughing (unless you're a total prude, of course). It's really unbelievable how pathetic the guys are who attempt to carry on a phone sex chat with "Kathy McGinty", who is pretty obviously a recorded voice triggered by someone's Yamaha SU10 sampler. They don't seem to mind that she sounds like she's talking to them over a CB radio, or that most of what she says is absurd and nonsensical, like a random sound collage from a porno movie. Her Taco bell comment just gets a moan of agreement from the hapless caller.
A few of the callers figure it out, and then it gets even more pathetic as they continue to masturbate, being such geeks that they're turned on by the technical details of the joke (one guy asks, excitedly, about if the sampler is triggered by keyboard or mouse). But most of the guys are so clueless and horny that they're completely unfazed by Kathy's bizarre comments ("I think you might be racist", "I want to have your retarded babies", "I've got a pickle in my ass") and limited vocabulary (she says "Yesssss!" the same way every time), or her deafeningly noisy, Merzbow-level obviously-looped screams of orgasmic ecstasy. We could go on, but we don't want to reveal too much. Just get this, it's the best crank call disc we've heard in a long time. You'll be playing it for everyone you know, except maybe your mom. Absurdly funny.
RealAudio clip: "I'm Jamming It In Deep, Baby"
RealAudio clip: "I'm Not A Child Molestor, But I'll Fuck You"

MCGREEVY, STEPHEN P. Auroral Chorus II: The Music of the Magnetosphere (SPM) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock! Last copies!
It's was a happy day at Aquarius when we heard about this release! American radio hobbyist Stephen P. McGreevy has dedicated himself to the documentation of earth's magnetosphere by using home built VLF radio receivers (whose schematics are readily available from McGreevy's website).
On Auroral Chorus II -- his second release after the acclaimed but sadly out of print Electric Enigma double cd set for Conet Project label Irdial -- McGreevy turns his charmingly enthused attention to the VLF phenomenon associated with the Aurora Borealis (aka the Northern Lights). Along with low buzzing hisses and crackles (not unlike those heard on records by hard disc editors like Fennesz and Pimmon), McGreevy's recievers have also picked up some beautiful choruses in which the magnetosphere resonates in beautiful wavering tones and whistling risers.
Furthermore, McGreevy shows off his technical savvy with some stereo recordings -- with two VLF receivers with antennae along the north / south axis and along the east / west axis!
As far as found sounds, McGreevy's VLF recordings are some of the more alien, yet most beautiful that we've ever encountered. So, if you missed "Electric Enigma" you now again have the chance to investigate these amazing sounds courtesy of McGreevy's fascinating obsession.
MPEG Stream: "track 7"
MPEG Stream: "track 10"

MCGREEVY, STEPHEN P. Electric Enigma (Irdial) 2cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the same label that brought us the truly disturbing Conet Project comes Stephen P. McGreevy's VLF recordings. With a knowledge of basic radio telescopics, a few choice geographical / atmospheric anomalies, and a good ear, McGreevy records the earth's electromagnetic signature generated through such phenomenon as the Alaskan Northern Lights. Delicate whistles streak over loud crackles, that bring to mind Id Battery's fascination with recorded fire, or John Duncan's shortwave radio experiments. Word of caution, one of our faithful customers complained that this created rather deleterious psychosomatic effects.

MCGREGOR, DION Dion McGregor Dreams Again (Tzadik) cd 16.98
How long would last if your roommate screamed his dreams out loud every night? Would you have the foresight to capture these disturbances on tape? Lucky for us back in the 1960's Dion McGregor's roommate stuck it out long enough to provide us with this aural document of one man's nocturnal pain and pleasure. Dion's dreams range from queeny dress up parties to drooling descriptions of large breasted women and cunnilingus contests. Equally disturbing as it is riveting.

MCGREGOR, DION The Further Somniloquies Of... (Torpor Vigil Industries) cd 15.98
Everybody's favorite sleeptalker is back and we're really fucking excited! Dreams Again, the previous release on Tzadik, is one of our most loved and consistently selling "spoken word" CDs, and with reason. Most of us who talk in our sleep tend to say maybe a couple words or phrases at best, often mumbled so quietly that it's hard to even catch the words they're saying -- if you even happen to be awake and close enough to hear it. Well imagine someone that regularly, throughout his entire life, recited entire dreams in a clear voice. And imagine every one of those dreams being the most ridiculous and surreal dreams imaginable. That's Dion McGregor. The story goes that in 1961 Dion McGregor -- a born again freeloader, chronic couch-surfer and quasi-successful song writer -- was discovered to be a verbose sleeptalker by the friend whose house he was currently crashing at. The friend, a director of porn films, attempted to jot down the dreams, but McGregor's speech was just too fast. With some mild coercion (free rent must have been involved) a mutual friend and song writer, Michael Barr, agreed to allow McGregor to sleep at his apartment in return for being allowed to record his dreams. Barr set up a microphone at the head of Dion's bed and for seven years recorded everything he could. Apparently Dion's vocalizations tended to begin just before waking in the morning, so there was a bit of predictability they could count on. Playing the tapes to the right people at the right time eventually resulted in an LP released on Decca in 1964 entitled the Dream World of Dion McGregor (and in 1999 Tzadik released a cd of additional material also recorded by Barr). While there must be enough tapes of McGregor's ramblings to cover several more volumes (Barr claims to have recorded upwards of 500 dreams), we'll have to settle for these 80 more minutes for the time being. Listening to these bizarre tales it's hard to believe that these are coming from a man who's genuinely asleep. The way McGregor recites them sounds almost conversational, describing the events he's undergoing. At the same time Mcgregor is both the director of his dreams: telling us to all get ready for the scavenger hunt (reciting off a myriad of strange objects that must be located), but also a participant: confessing to us that he'll never be able to locate said objects in such short time. And, it must be added, he almost invariably ends each transmission with horrified screaming. No matter how mild or whimsical a dream may be when it starts, it always seems to end in either tragedy or just plain shrieking madness. But the theory that McGregor made up and performed these monologues, fully conscious, is even harder to imagine. He would have had to have been quite a writer and a performer to achieve such results, and to allow it to remain archived in obscuity for eternity. No matter, even if these were faked they still add up to an impressive collection of the most fucked up, hilarious and down right amazing monologues this side of Kenneth Patchen. An absolute must for all lovers of the more disturbing aspects of the human psyche!
MPEG Stream: "The Scavenger Hunt"
MPEG Stream: "It's All Over Evelyn"

MEANING OF LIFE, THE s/t (Narbin Deeber) cd-r 9.98
"The first thing is that time travel has been going on forever." The second thing is that, at Aquarius, this cd-r has been causing a bit of consternation as no one seems to know why they should be the one assigned to write about "the meaning of life". Yeah, real funny. What we DO know, according to what is written on the back cover, is that the recording captured here comes from a cassette mysteriously labeled "The Meaning of Life" which was found lying on a roadside and eventually passed along to the producer of this disc. The recording is of a very agitated man apparently talking on the phone. Whether he's actually talking on the phone is anyone's guess. He repeatedly gets so angry with whoever is on the other end that he works himself into a frenzy screaming "Shut UP!!!" repeatedly, his voice breaking up from his strained frustration. What is clear about this man is that he's not playing with a full deck of cards. None the less, the monologue is at once disturbing and entertaining. To top it off the recording is made not using an answering machine or anything else which might actually pick up whoever would be on the other end of the conversation, but with a microphone placed in the room with the caller. The added benefit from this method is that we're treated to the rumbling ambiance of a thunder storm. The equipment used is not the best, so at times it's hard to tell whether that is indeed a thunderstorm in the background or someone banging on a giant dumpster. Whatever the sound is, it gets so loud at times that it drowns out the man's ranting. So what is he talking about? Well, that's a fair question. However, it's hard enough to follow a spoken word disc in the store as it is, dealing with all of our daily tasks, but when the monologue is that of a raving lunatic, it's even more challenging. There are time traveling Android/Angels, including a Christ Android that will descend to the earth from the 12th planet. Plus there's also a great deal here about mind control, Stalin, and Donna Summer (ie: the devil). Our narrator, who has a superior knowledge of physics, puts it best perhaps when he tells his silent friend that he knows so much shit that if he "were to say it all at once to anybody they'd go fucking stark raving crazy at light speed." One theory is that the person on the other end of the line is actually the narrator himself in the past. The disc ends, oddly enough, with some random music snatches attributed to Donna Summer and then some short audio samples from the rant tagged on at the very end so that -- I suppose -- you can pull off your own Kathy McGinty or Arnold Schwarzenegger style prank calls.
"If I say the wrong thing over the phone I get a horrible Huey attack"
MPEG Stream: "CPU's of the 25th Century"
MPEG Stream: "12th Planet"

METALLICA DRUMMER (Neverending Entertainment) video 11.98
Back for one very very limited edition last hurrah! It's the infamous and highly sought Metallica Drummer video which has been sadly out of print for five years much to the chagrin of those whose lives were severely altered by viewing the tape. Those individuals will surely not want to miss out this time around. In fact, for those of you who were fortunate enough to nab a copy the first time around, it's undoubtably been worn thin from repeat plays. I know mine has. Time for a fresh copy! For those who have yet to experience Metallica Drummer... hoooo boy, brace yourself!
Released once again by Neverending Entertainment aka our very own Cup and her I Am Spoonbender bandmate Dustin. Apart from buying it directly from them at their shows, AQ is pleased as punch to be the *only* other place to get it.
Here's what we said the first time around...
You have certainly spent many idle moments staring at the wall dreaming of stardom. You've spent inspired Sunday afternoons dancing on your bed, singing your favorite song to the illusion of thousands of adoring, screaming fans below. But have you been caught?
Metallica Drummer, as he has come to be known, set-up a video camera in his livingroom, put on some of his favorite Metallica songs and gave an air-drumming performance with no equal. This is truly one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. The humor lies not only in laughing at this embarrassing moment, but in the utter fascination with someone who is so obsessed with Lars Ulrich that he is able to replicate his drumming with absolute accuracy. I am certain that he sold his soul at the crossroads to acquire these unparallelled air-drum skills. An astonishing personal document. "He's talented! He's obsessed! He's Canadian! He's... Metallica Drummer!"
Very limited and sure to go fast, and once they're gone, they're gone! So don't snooze and lose again!

MIESKUORO HUUTAJAT 10th Anniversary Concert (Bad Vugum) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the liner notes: "Ten and a half years ago, a few men in Oulu (Finland) were bothered by a thought: what would it be like to assemble a maximal number of men into a regular formation and dress them in dark suits, black rubber ties (made of used inner tubes), white shirts, and make them furiously shout some patriotic texts sacred to Finns. The men didn't have any further starting point: neither musical frustrations, a political programme, an aesthetic trend, nor opinions concerning postmodenism in arctic areas. But already the first choir rehersal proved that a shouting men's choir would have expressive power in all these senses."
Allow me to reiterate, 80 Finnish men in black suits and rubber ties barking rhythmic reinterpretations of patriotic Finnish songs (they also shout the 'Star Spangled Banner'!!!). One of AQ's favorite documents of the absurd.

MIESKUORO HUUTAJAT H.V.Y.A. (Bad Vugum) cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Quite simply one of the most fucked things that has passed through the doors of AQ! A choir of 40 men who do not sing, rather they shout various Finnish anthems, children's ditties, and patriotic songs. As you can accertain, these renditions are completely devoid of melody but have an outstanding sensibility when it comes to re-interpreting the rhythmic elements of the original songs. The CD features all of the tracks from their Finnish major label single of variations on the national anthems from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, U.S.A., and Germany (which is down right awesome). Gratefully both formats clock in well under 15 minutes, any more would be sadistic.

MIZUTANI, KIYOSHI Scenery Of The Border: Environments And Folklore Of The Tanzawa Mountains (And / OAR) 2cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A few years back, Kiyoshi Mizutani ventured into the Tanzawa mountain range located to the southwest of Tokyo in order to document the sounds of that very isolated region. In the liner notes to this album, Mizutani explains that this region enjoys a complex history with centuries worth of military endeavors and legends including one tragedy which Mizutani alludes to about "the losing army's princess." Needless to say, the mountains may have been of strategic importance to any number of rival factions; but by now, their remoteness and desolation harbors only a small population. He focuses his attention upon three aspects of those mountains: the natural (which is the dominant voice of the Tanzawan environment), the ceremonial folklore of the people, and the residual noise of the man-made. Mizutani's love of bird sounds was evident on one of his early sound works simply entitled Bird Songs; and the spirited chatter of many a bird dots Mizutani's field recordings. Crickets, cicadas, and plenty of insect choruses also feature into Scenery Of The Border, as does a broad range of watery recordings from quiet drips from a misty rain to the immersive white noise of waterfalls. The few recordings that feature a human presence are of restrained Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies, which Mizutani mentions have rarely been heard outside of that region. It's these ritualistic stompings and hushed bits of chanting that stand amongst the highlights of this incredible field recording document.
MPEG Stream: "Hail At Mt. Tanzawa"
MPEG Stream: "Million Times Invocation Of Yozuku"
MPEG Stream: "Blue And White Flycatcher At Shiomizu Pass"

MIZUTANI, KYOSHI Bird Songs (Ground Fault) cd 11.98
During the '80s, Kyoshi Mizutani was a member of Merzbow with Masami Akita - the man who's name is often synonymous with Merzbow, in spite of the many individuals who have helped with his ongoing Merzbow project. For this album, Mizutani presents six different and mostly untreated field recordings with tenuous connections to bird songs. The first track features the most overt manipulation of the field recorings with Mizutani sampling and modulating the tweeting song of an Indian Tree Pipit. Mizutani's raw recordings also feature the strange call of a Ground Thrush in the midnight rain and the squawking of several ducks as the airplanes fly overhead their bird sanctuary. There's also a track in which Mizutani records a duet between himself spartanly playing a thumbpiano and the calls of a number of birds in the forest. While he's captured some nice sounds, his microphone is not quite as finely tuned as the ones used by Bernie Krause or Chris Watson.

MNORTHAM :coyot: (Erewhon) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Aeolian harps are relatively simple devices made from of a couple planks of wood and a taut wire, which are placed in relation to a wind source to transform the speed, force, and directionality of the air itself into an extended drone. David Kenny's Aeolian String Ensemble and Douglas Quin's Antarctica recordings (using ice instead of wood and wire) are previous examples we've mentioned of the amazing sounds that an aeolian harp can generate. Portland sound artist Mnortham received a commission to install a series of aeolian harps in an abandoned bunker found on an island off the coast of Finland. (Cool!) ":coyot:" is a collection of the transmuted sounds from the recordings that Mnortham made within that bunker, as well as from various field recordings culled from the exploration of the island's landscape. While the lengthy essay contributed by Giancarlo Toniutti offers a complex thesis on the relation of these recordings to the sky / wind / air mythologies of a number of ancient Nordic races, Mnortham's recordings succeed through their beautifully droning simplicity, much like Francisco Lopez or Jonathan Coleclough.
RealAudio clip: "Effects On Atmospheric Pressure On Air-Born Particles"

MODULO 1000 Nao Fale Com Paredes (World In Sound) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
All right! It's about time this legendary slice of South American psych got a not-inordinately-expensive cd reissue we could stock. We've been into this band/album ever since a REALLY expensive but beautiful (and now long-gone) vinyl reissue came out on Shadoks some years ago. Now World In Sound makes it available on cd in a fancy thick triple-fold sleeve that preserves the great psychedelic gatefold art from the original LP -- art that Acid Mothers Temple would die for! There's a 14-page booklet with notes and photos as well. This is definitely one for all you '70s heavy psych freaks! Super fuzz wah guitar and organ jamming stoner psych-prog from Brazil, circa 1970. Nine tracks packed with sinewy jams, trippy fx, weighty grooves... definitely appealing to the same head-space as contemporaries like Iron Butterfly, Dug Dug's, Captain Beyond, Speed Glue & Shinki, Hendrix, Flower Travellin' Band, etc. And we're pretty certain that current South American stoner rock faves Los Natas must be into this album too... Also, you may in fact have heard one track from this before, on the ever-recommended Love, Peace & Poetry: Latin American Psychedelic Music comp also on Shadoks, but that track only hints at how cool this album is. (They also have a track on the LP&P Brazilian volume too.)
Here's a quote from one of the band members, the organist, that ought to give some flavor of what they were all about: "The music of Modulo 1000 had its own appeal to an audience that wanted a heavy, raw, experimental, psychedelic sound. Our kind of music did not make it to the radio stations. It was too wild. The distribution of the record was done in a very limited way. The record label directors, which probably didn't understand or even didn't like our music, did zero promotion for the LP." Thus, one darn heavy, weird, and utterly rare record!
This reish also includes seven bonus tracks (from where/when is left unexplained) some of which are freaky enough to fit with the actual record itelf, but just aren't as heavy -- more Latin groovy.
MPEG Stream: "Nao Fale Com Paredes"
MPEG Stream: "Salve-Se Quem Pudea"

MUSEE MECANIQUE Presents The Zelinsky Collection (Musee Mechanique) dvd 16.98
Oh boy! A DVD filmed at San Francisco's famed Musee Mechanique, that fantastic collection of turn of the century penny arcade machines!! Cool. We figure that many of our customers who've bought the cds of music from the Musee that we sell (three volumes so far, you'll find 'em elsewhere on our site) haven't actually had the chance to visit the place themselves, so this is perfect. And if you HAVE been to the Musee -- especially the old Cliff House location -- you'll want this for the memories. And it'll make you want to head on down there soon enough again to visit in person, so it's double the nostagia trip (for the early 1900's, and for the last time you were there).
For those who haven't even heard of the place, basically the Musee Mechanique, now located on Pier 45 down at Fisherman's Wharf, is filled with coin-operated mechanical amusements ranging from music boxes and player-piano type contraptions (several with an orchestra's worth of sounds) to various games of skill and chance to quaint "peep shows" to fortune tellers to animated dioramas (what are called "working models") to Musee mascot Laughing Sal... all are to be found on this DVD, filmed in action, as collector/curator Edward Zelinsky takes viewers on a guided tour of the Musee's many attractions, even stopping to try his hand at the "Love Tester". Sometimes he talks about when/where/how he ended up acquiring the machine he's showing off, but just as often he just drops the quarter in and gives a "hey, wow, gee whiz" reaction just like a kid.
The documentary has its cheesy (but charming) moments -- someone gets carried away with video effects a few times, for instance -- but we're mighty pleased with it overall. It's very cool to get a glimpse at the inner workings of both the Musee and its machines. Maybe our favorite thing about this DVD is the way the camera really gets up close and personal with the "working models", taking the viewer into the scene (fire house, farm, graveyard, and our favorite, the opium den!!) in a way that you can't really experience even in person. Especially with that creepy opium den diorama, we were reminded of a Brothers Quay film or Tool video...
Ed Zelinsky passed away in 2004 (his tour was filmed when the Musee was still at the Cliff house) but his collection is in the capable hands of his son Daniel, who had been running the Musee and fixing the machines for many years already, and appears in several of the "extras" included. Total running time 68:45.

MUSEE MECANIQUE The Zelinsky Collection Volume 1 (Mechanical Museum) cd 14.98
Long, long ago we stocked an LP of recordings from San Francisco's own Cliff House-based Musee Mechanique. Sadly this album went out of print a few years back, leaving many sad customers who'd found out about it too late. Well weep no longer, as AQ now has an all new disc (the first of several, we're told) of recordings made of the machines at the museum.
The Musee Mechanique, for those who've never been, is a hands-on museum of early penny arcade machines (some over a century old) kept in their original working order for the public's enjoyment by the determined work of curator Edward Galland Zelinsky. Every time we have visitors from out of town, we take' em here. Stereoscopic peep shows, moralising fortune tellers, old baseball game machines, nickelodeons, prisoner art made out of toothpicks, music boxes, player pianos, "test your strength" challenges, animated dioramas, and more are constantly kept in tune -- it's both historic and entertaining. (Including everyone's favorite -- Laughing Sal, a larger than life size doll who just laughs and laughs and laughs. Wonderful.) The 27 tracks found here are all new recordings of the various machines (mostly player pianos playing assorted rags), captured after museum hours, so it's free of unwanted tourist chatter (although they nicely left the sounds of the coins falling into the slot as lead ins to each track.)
RealAudio clip: "Cancione"
RealAudio clip: "Laughing Sal"
RealAudio clip: "Roses From The South"

MUSEE MECANIQUE The Zelinsky Collection Volume 2 (Mechanical Museum) cd 14.98
The Musee Mecanique at San Francisco's historic Cliff House is one of our favorite things in the whole city. We *always* take visitors from out of town there, and they always love it. The Musee is a collection of antique coin-operated arcade machines, lovingly restored and cared for, including animated dioramas ("The Opium Den" is a favorite), crank-operated racing games, mechanical strength-testing devices, boxing and baseball games, fortune tellers, and many automated musical instruments (player pianos, music boxes, and the like), which fill the place with great old ragtime tunes. They've been recording the machines (complete with the sound of coins dropping in to start 'em) and have plans to release a whole series of cds documenting this delightful old-timey music. Volume One came out last year (and we sold quite a few), and now we've got Volume Two! Yay! These 27 tracks are similar to the stuff on the first volume, perhaps "more bouncy" though. And the famous Laughing Sal (the giant, manaically whooping automaton who dominates the entrance to the Musee) makes another appearance, closing out the disc with one of her always-disturbing outbursts of hilarity... A nice way to keep some of the spirit of the Musee Mecanique in your home, and to help support their preservation endeavors!
RealAudio clip: "Dizzy Fingers"
RealAudio clip: "Don't Give Up the Ship"
RealAudio clip: "Goofus"
RealAudio clip: "Piano Roll Blues"
RealAudio clip: "Temptation"

MUSEE MECANIQUE The Zelinsky Collection Volume 3 (Mechanical Museum) cd 14.98
Everyone here at Aquarius was SO happy and relieved when the Musee Mechanique -- that wonderful place full of antique penny-aracade machines that's one of our favorite San Francisco cultural/fun spots -- found a new home at Fisherman's Wharf. Previously it had been a highlight to a trip out to the historic Cliff House next door to the ruined Sutro Baths up above Ocean Beach, but the Park Service decided the Cliff House needed a renovation and gave the Musee an eviction notice. Thankfully, rather than close up, they managed to make a move down to the Wharf, which while not as picturesque a location, still seems to have worked out well for 'em. You'll now find the Musee at pier 45, shed A, right alongside the Jeremiah O'Brien and that WWII submarine. Not only did the Musee find a new home, but now they've released a third volume of recordings documenting the player-piano-roll operated mechanical musical contraptions you'll find there. Vols. 1 and 2 were hits here at AQ and with good reason. Vol. 3 picks up where they left off, featuring more of the music made by their collection of lovingly preserved orchestras-in-a-box from decades and decades ago. For the first time ever, the machine pictured on the cover, the huge and impressive "Englehardth", finally appears in all its sonic glory on disc, as they finally got it fully restored into working order.
As with the other volumes, these are excellent recordings and each track starts with the coin drop, a nice touch. Musically, you can expect lotsa charming old timey tunes with titles like "Maurice's Irresistable Tango", "Grandpa's Spells", "There's A Shanti In Old Shantitown" and "My Song Of The Nile". Some you'll recognize, some won't be so familiar. All are quite quaint to modern ears, yet lively and spirited. There's 27 musical tracks here, from jaunty foot tappers to romantic melodies -- and then as always, the Musee's mascot, Laughing Sal, wraps things up with her disturbingly forced, truly hysterical laughter. Next best thing to actually visiting the Musee Mechanique, which we highly recommend.
MPEG Stream: "Maurice's Irresistable Tango"
MPEG Stream: "You Tell Me Your Dreams And I'll Tell You Mine"
MPEG Stream: "Grandpa's Spells"
MPEG Stream: "My Song Of The Nile"

MY MORNING JACKET / SONGS: OHIA split cd (Jade Tree) cd 10.98
Four songs from My Morning Jacket and an almost ten minute long track by Songs: Ohia. The former includes a kinda dorky, messing-with-the-speed-control track called "The Year In Review" as well as a couple of numbers that fans of Sparklehorse might take a shine to - most notably the beautiful weeper "Come Closer". And as for Songs: Ohia's lengthy "Translation", it's completely on par with their recent efforts... that is, a brittle, lonely dolefulness that mainman Jason Molina has refined over his prolific career.
RealAudio clip: MY MORNING JACKET "Come Closer"
RealAudio clip: SONGS: OHIA "Translation"

NAMBLARD, MARC Chants Of Frozen Lakes (Kalerne Editions) cd 17.98
We've long been proponents of the idea, that any sound man can make, using technology and engineering and electronics, nature can make too. And it will be just as mysterious and interesting. Made even more so, that those sounds occur, well, naturally. And in most cases, especially in electronic music, many of the sounds we discover and create using synthesizers, mimic sounds already produced in nature.
Countless field recordings have proven this, and this latest disc - a recording of the ice on a lake in France, slowly melting - does so once again!
By now, regular readers of the list, have been exposed to plenty of unique field recordings, drag races, life support machines, frogs, applause, monkeys, cowbells, barking dogs, rutting deer and of course the sound of water and ice. Ice and water seem to be particularly interesting sonically, as they always seem to be in motion, whether at the microscopic level melting and cracking, or on a more physical level, the sound of rushing rivers, pouring rain.
The sounds here, like many of the other field recordings we are so fond of, sound NOTHING like what you would imagine ice would sound like. Apparently, the layer of ice on the lake, acts like the head of a drum, transmitting the various cracks and crackles and vibrations across the expansive sheet of ice, producing strange tones, some very electronic sounding, all of them mysterious.
This record was woven together the sounds of the ice covered lake on a single day. Hours of recordings edited into one hour, but no other work has been done on these sounds, this is the actual sound of the ice. It begins with the sound of birds, the ice producing tiny little streaks of sound, that do sound like synthesizers, strange space-y FX, suspended in an expanse of murky murmur. The intensity and the frequency of those space-y streaks increases as the day warms up and the ice begins to fracture and melt, the barrage of bleeps and bloops begin to sound like a Star Wars laser battle, and sound like it couldn't possibly be the sound of ice. Eventually, the laser like streaks get deeper, and more resonant, as if someone was adding reverb or delay, until it's just a cloud of fuzzy bleeps and warbly tweets, underpinned by the actual staticky crackle of the ice cracking.
It's hard to explain much better than that, try listening to the sound samples, you will be amazed. It truly is a rare glimpse of some impossible and mysterious soundworld. A peek into how nature works, or at the very least, a chance to overhear the magic of nature, the sounds the exist in the wild, even if most of the time we're unable to hear them. Magical.
MPEG Stream: "Chants Of Frozen Lakes (Excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Chants Of Frozen Lakes (Excerpt 2)"

NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE Doot Doola Doot Doo... Doot Doo! (Alternative Tentacles / Nardwuar The Human Serviette Records) 2dvd 21.00
If you have even a tiny inkling of who or what Nardwuar The Human Serviette is, you know this is a big fucking deal! For years and years, the contents of his monumental interview archive vaults have only been accessible in bits and pieces on his home-compiled VHS tapes, on his weekly college radio show in Vancouver and on brief Much Music appearances in Canada, but now finally you can take a heaping double platter home with you!!! Are you prepared? For five and a half hours worth? Well, if you're unsure as to whether you have the endurance for it, we strongly recommend that you brace/pace yourself, and don't be dissuaded. Stock up on snacks, take the phone off the hook, you'll be okay. Hell, you don't have to watch it all in one sitting, but once you get started it might be hard to stop.
Many less observant, less hardy folks might dismiss the tartan capped, high-pitched Nardwuar The Human Serviette as simply a hyperactive irritant with a microphone -- lumping him in with seemingly similar in-your-face tightly-wound personalities such as fellow Canuck Tom Green, but first (and second) impressions can be deceiving. While we have to admit many of his disarming, oft-infuriating, absurd tactics do closely resemble those of more self-aggrandizing gonzo interviewers, there's definitely something else going on with this infamous irrepressible staunch Canadian. Let's take for example his unbelievably obsessive researching skills. For each and every potential interview subject, he consistently bloodhounds out the obscurest, mundanest, yet oddly fascinating facts that effectively stop the interviewee in his/her tracks. Y'know, those little skeletons in the closet that they themselves don't even remember, and that via Nardwuar have come back to haunt them much to their glee or chagrin.
In the early days, he started out by primarily digging into the nooks and crannies of the indie music scene doing interviews for his radio show. As his own notoriety grew so did his scope, broadening to encompass the whole show biz industry. Along the way he's also delved deeper and deeper into other media related areas and points of interest (politics, self-help, tele-evangelism to name a few).
The list of people to whom he's somehow gained access is in itself nothing short of mind-blowing (over 60 interviews are featured on this dvd set and that's a mere drop in this Serviette's bucket) -- Mikhail Gorbachev, Dan Quayle, Gene Simmons, Pam Grier, Marilyn Manson, Destiny's Child, Gwar, Kelly Osborne, Slayer, Ian MacKaye, Vanilla Ice, Franz Ferdinand, Wesley Willis, David Cross, Busta Rhymes, Michael Moore, Cradle Of Filth, Blur, Henry Rollins, Thor, Ernest Angley.... And that's not even counting his multiple interview encounters with Snoop Dogg, Courtney Love and Jello Biafra over the past decade.
Clearly people love him, hate him and love to hate him, but when he suffered a brain hemmorhage a few years back, it was nothing but an outpouring of love and admiration that came his way from all walks of life. While hospitalized he received an avalanche of gifts and well-wishes (including a painting by and from David Lee Roth!), and even had to have his own bedside payphone to take all the calls that came flooding in. But now fortunately he is back on his feet wreaking havoc with this, his most comprehensive crowning glory to date. Granted it's not for everyone, but those who rise to the challenge will be duly rewarded with a thorough schooling of headscratching useful and useless facts, figures and trivia, will be thoroughly entertained along the way, and will find themselves responding with a resounding "Doot Doo!"
Also included: lots of sights and sounds of Nardwuar's bands (The Evaporators and Thee Goblins), an eye-straining 16 page boooklet, and yes of course, audio commentary!

NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE Welcome To My Castle! (Nardwuar / Mint) 2dvd 28.00
Time to give your eyes, ears and funny bone a workout! To prepare yourself we suggest you drop and give us twenty! Heh heh... here's the prequel to Nardwuar The Human Serviette's 2006 double dvd interview extravaganza Doot Doola Doot Doo... Doot Doo! (please see our review of that release if you need a Nardwuar tutorial). What d'ya know, it's another double dvd interview extravaganza! How does he do it?! The superhuman Canadian Nardwuar packs every nook and cranny of these dvds with wild'n'woolly entertainment. Totalling a whopping five and a half hours in running time, Welcome To My Castle! contains his two cable TV specials that he produced back in the '90s, and a plethora of interviews with such varied celebrities as Bob "Gilligan" Denver, The Monkees' Mickey Dolenz, Tommy Chong, Ron Jeremy, Timothy Leary, Cynthia Plaster Caster, Jello Biafra, Flea, Courtney Love, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Anthony Robbins, Tom Vu, former U.S. President Gerald Ford, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and many many more! Some are total gutbusters, some are jawdroppers, some are a bit tense, and some are sublime.
Plus you also get a bunch of new vids by his band Thee Evaporators (be sure to check out their latest full length Gassy Jack And Other Tales which we've also reviewed on this here list!). Pssst, the dvds' menus and chapter titles were all hand-lettered by our own Cup!

NATH FAMILY Sounds Of The Indian Snake Charmer (Hanson) cd 14.98
Finally! This out of print, vinyl only aQ fave gets re-issued on cd!
On a brief break from bursting ear drums and shredding synthesizers and destroying clubs in Wolf Eyes, Aaron Dilloway spent a brief period living in Nepal with his wife. While she studied, Dilloway wandered the streets, where he encountered the Nath family, Titu, Kala, Sukha and Ram Chendra, three generations, all street performers, hustlers, and SNAKE CHARMERS. Well, Dilloway quickly befriended the family, hung out, drank, smoked and most importantly recorded their amazing talents. Haunting and dizzying Eastern melodies, performed on traditional bamboo reed instruments called pungis and accompanied by a stringed percussion instrument called a premtal. So lovely, swaying and swooning, droney and buzzy, all hovering above a fluctuating framework of tribal percussion and shuffling, rattling rhythms. At times playful and bouncy (supposedly that's some Bollywood music) but more often mesmerizing and hypnotic, a wavering warbling drone. You can't really hear the swaying cobras, but if you listen really close you can hear folks walking past, talking, cars, all adding to the feeling that you are right there, in an alley in Nepal, seated before huge hooded snakes, being lulled into a trance by the endlessly droning Eastern buzz.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

NATH FAMILY Sounds of the Indian Snake Charmer (Hanson) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On a brief break from bursting ear drums and shredding synthesizers and destroying clubs in Wolf Eyes, Aaron Dilloway spent a brief period living in Nepal with his wife. While she studied, Dilloway wandered the streets, where he encountered the Nath family, Titu, Kala, Sukha and Ram Chendra, three generations, all street performers, hustlers, and SNAKE CHARMERS. Well, Dilloway quickly befriended the family, hung out, drank, smoked and most importantly recorded their amazing talents. Haunting and dizzying Eastern melodies, performed on traditional bamboo reed instruments called pungis and accompanied by a stringed percussion instrument called a premtal. So lovely, swaying and swooning, droney and buzzy, all hovering above a fluctuating framework of tribal percussion and shuffling, rattling rhythms. At times playful and bouncy (supposedly that's some Bollywood music) but more often mesmerizing and hypnotic, a wavering warbling drone. You can't really hear the swaying cobras, but if you listen really close you can hear folks walking past, talking, cars, all adding to the feeling that you are right there, in an alley in Nepal, seated before huge hooded snakes, being lulled into a trance by the endlessly droning Eastern buzz. Comes in a super snazzy three color silkscreened sleeve. Vinyl only, and limited!!

NEGATIVLAND These Guys Are From England (Seelard) cd 14.98
Way back in the 20th century, 1991 to be precise, media pranksters Negativland got themselves into a legal tussle with Island Records when they naively released a single on SST that covered U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and revealed Casey Kasem to be a foulmouthed ogre, all on the same track! Both SST and Negativland were subsequently sued into submission. Copies of the original U2 cd can still be had for anywhere from $75 to $100 US for the disc and bootlegged copies have been floating around ever since the track was pulled. Rather than go further into that whole can of carnuba wax I'll just refer those who are unfamiliar with this mother of all fair use lawsuits to Negativland's thorough and entertaining book "Fair Use: The Story Of The Letter U And The Numeral 2" (still in print), a 288 page document of the entire court case and Negativland's subsequent legal troubles with Greg Ginn and SST. Well now, here we are in a new millennium, on the ten year anniversary of the lawsuit where Seeland has already tested the legal waters with their re-issue of John Oswald's magnum opus "Plunderphonics" and so far the sharks aren't biting. Sensing that maybe the industry's lawyers have lost their taste for such passe copyright issues in favor of the much tastier Napster and the whole peer-to-peer fiasco, the label "Seelard" (hmmm...) has stepped in to see the return of this classic piece of copyright infringement. As a bonus to this risque reissue Seelard has included 9 extra tracks relating to the original single such as an excerpt from an Over The Edge (Negativland's Don Joyce's weekly radio show on KPFA) show from 1989 where the germination of the single began. One track is an edited version of the "Radio Edit" so that you *can* now safely play it on the radio -- all the nasty words have been covered up with a cornucopia of sound effects. The seven remaining tracks on this disc were taken from live performances by Negativland in 1990 (Knitting Factory, NYC) and 1993 (Great American Music Hall, SF) and cover Casey's "Long Distance Dedication" on up to material that wound up on the cd that accompanied Negativland's book (see above). There's an abundance of good material added to the fated single in these live performances including numerous tapes referring to "U2" that Don Joyce had picked up in the interim, plus some more serious audio forays detailing Francis Gary Powers' fateful flight over the USSR in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Diddley Shit!
RealAudio clip: "Special Edit Radio Mix - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
RealAudio clip: "Black Lady of Espionage, The"

NEGATIVLAND Willsaphone Stupid Show, the (Seeland) 2cd 15.98
Volume 6 in Negativland's Over The Edge series (so named for the weekly radio show produced by Negativland on KPFA). This volume is dedicated to David Wills -- aka The Weatherman -- and his obsession with field recording, most notably his fixation with recording his family. Don Joyce and David produced several shows on Over The Edge dedicated to David and his tapes and then distilled it down to these two discs. Beginning with a recording of David with his first tape recorder as a young wippersnapper and continuing with all the various tapes he made through his youth, adolescence, and on into adulthood. One of the principle subjects of David's recordings are Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with his family. In David's house, where he lived with his parents up until they passed away, he had both his room and the kitchen wired for sound so that he could play tapes of his mom and grandmother talking while making thanksgiving dinner as they made thanksgiving dinner a year later, or two years, or five... etc. The two then remark on the previous years as David continues to record them and talk back to them. The result is a really bizarre, non-linear ongoing conversation. Interspersed throughout these two discs of David's audio history are sections where listeners to the show call up and query Mr Wills for help with their cable TV repair, radio and electronics problems, ask questions about home cleaning and participate in the "Fake Bacon & Electronic Music" hotline.
RealAudio clip: "I'm A Vegetable, Wired Up House, Steamin' Mad At Dirt, etc"
RealAudio clip: "Fuck You, Tough Darts, Jingle Bells, etc"

NERELL, LOREN Indonesian Soundscapes (Soleilmoon) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Armed with a DAT and sights on a Masters in Ethnomusicology Loren Nerell had every intention of documenting temple ceremonial music, but found himself captivated by the daily ambient / environmental sounds of bamboo forests, bus depots, and muslim calls to worship. All are collected here as well as sounds of a Gamelan maker's showroom, frogs, excerpts of wayang kulit (Javanese shadow puppet plays), plus everyone's favorite, the lovable Kecak monkey chant of Bali and much more. Excellent.

NERELL, LOREN Taksu (Soleilmoon) cd 14.98

NEWSOM, JOANNA Ys (Drag City) cd 14.98
One of the most anticipated releases this year, Joanna Newsom's second full length Ys (fyi: apparently pronounced 'ease', not 'wise') probably needs no introduction. Before we all drown in the river of salivation, perhaps we should just ring the supper bell and holler, "Come 'n' get it!"
Have you been hearing the rather loud murmurs about how Joanna Newsom is telling all that -- contrary to all of the press portraits of her resembling an Appalachian woodland waif -- she is not simply a folk songstress? Us too, and well, on an initial couple of listens to Ys, it does seem to be true. Yes, she has reinvented herself, somewhat aggressively distancing herself from the young indie folk scene that she helped spawn. It appears all that lingers from The Milk-Eyed Mender is her trusty harp, though even it claims less of the spotlight. Ys most definitely shows much artistic growth and aspiration with a far broader creative scope and production sense. Really, if there's any question that Newsom (and her label Drag City) are goin' for the serious artiste cred, you need look no further than the big gun support and chaperoning courtesy of top shelf luminaries Van Dyke Parks, Steve Albini and Jim O'Rourke. Not unexpectedly, THEY do amazing work on this album. It's stunningly beautiful. With a supporting cast like that, Newsom was clearly afforded full freedom to focus on realizing her vision. But what is that vision? We're not being completely facetious when we suggest two words -- Kate Bush. Heck, she's certainly already captivated the imagination of a similarly obsessive adoring fanbase as Ms Bush's, and maybe just as many naysayers. The mere mention of either artist's name triggers immediate passionate love/hate reactions. Her overall presentation seems so directly inspired by the venerable artist's own eccentric dramatics that you'd almost expect her to break out into "Babooshka" at any moment! Speaking of which with regards to the vocal department, the Kate and Joanna fans around here have likened her pixie-esque singing on this album to Kate Bush as a child minstrel (mind you, the non-Kate and Joanna fans might rephrase that less kindly as Kate Bush as a squeeze toy). Regardless, this is quite the ambitious work. In each of the five lengthy tracks (the longest is 16 minutes!), she unveils her lyrics in theatrical, highly literary fashion. It's still the storybook stuff of romantic fairy tales and whimsical fables, but it's set far less in nature than the rural hued Milk Eyed Mender. It evokes fantastic jewel-toned interiors, stages, salons, tea rooms. At once, dainty and sumptuous. The album defies expectations in wonderful, enchanting ways.
MPEG Stream: "Emily "
MPEG Stream: "Cosmia"

NOKTURNAL MORTUM NeChrist (The End) cd 13.98
Imagine the Charlie Daniels Band jammin' with Emperor. Or rather, playing at the same time in adjoining practice rooms -- out in the forest. The ancient forests of the Ukraine, to be precise. That's where Nokturnal Mortum hail from. This is their third album. You may remember the big fuss we made over the amazing Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra disc last year? Well, Mr. Varggoth is the main guy in this band Nokturnal Mortum. With "NeChrist", he and his comrades have created a unique sound, one that combines a raw, roaring black metal attack with the pipes and fiddles and "yee-haws" of folk/country music, Ukrainian style. And, to make us AQ-ers enjoy this EVEN MORE, all of a sudden all the music will stop and the middle part of a track will be occupied by the croaking of frogs! And you know we like frogs and the noises they make. Similarily, the final song on the disc is preceded by 78 short (3 sec.) tracks of twittering birdsounds and forest ambience. Therefore, if you play the disc in "shuffle" mode, you get lots of cut-up bird calls mixed with the occasional actual fantastic Nokturnal Mortum song! The unanimous AQ black metal pick of this lunar month!! Brilliant. Yee-haw! (Recommended.)
RealAudio clip: "The Funeral Wind Born In Oriana"

OLAN, COLIN s/t (Listen) cd ep 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This little 3" cd, a wonderfully crackling, hissing soundscape simply documenting the sound of ice melting, makes for a neat companion to another recent 3" cd we recommended, Jean-Francois Laporte's "Mantra" (a 20-minute drone piece derived from the sound of ice cooling and/or Zamboni machinery at a skating rink, you'll recall). To examine, in microscopic detail, rather the reverse of that process, recordist Collin Olan (sorry, we don't know much about him other than that he's someone with an idea and a couple of microphones) froze his waterproofed contact mics in a 10" x 10" block of ice, and submerged it in water, allowing us to listen in as the ice block slowly thaws and melts for over 17 minutes. This unprocessed recording turns out to be quite active and varied, full of sizzling, fat-frying kinds of sounds (to our ears, not unlike the atmospheric VLF radiation recordings of Stephen McGreevy) punctuated by some quite loud popping noises, ending with a stretch of near silence when the ice is, presumably, almost entirely melted away. That Olan utilized two microphones adds a lot of sonic interest to the proceedings, with different goings-on in each stereo speaker. Turn it up, and the 10" x 10" block becomes an immense glacier or berg that the listener is entombed within -- imagine yourself an unlucky prehistoric Ice Man frozen for millenia until freed and revived by modern science, like in that Timothy Hutton movie from the '80s! Certainly a sucessful experiment (we've known others with the same idea who've tried this, only to ruin their mics to little result), and quite a "carbonated" -sounding treat for the ear, especially for fans of the recordings of John Duncan, Loren Chasse, Marc Behrens, Stephen McGreevy -- and also of course for all our customers who we know are already into ice-themed 3" cds!
RealAudio clip: "untitled"

OLIVEGARDEN, THE When You're Here, You're Family (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, MAINLY BECAUSE IT WAS AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE! HEE HEE! SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Glenn Donaldson (of Thuja, Blithe Sons, Skygreen Leopards, The Birdtree, The Ivytree, etc.) brings us yet another cd-r of his wondrous folk-improv-field-recording, this time, the instruments were dragged to Stonestown Galleria, where the band set up in the bar of popular Italian eatery. So along with gently plucked guitars, and plaintive warbling vocals, and simple childlike percussion, you can also hear the sounds of tinkling glasses, families dining, cell phones ringing and all sorts of other sonic urban detritus. The highlight is probably the 30 minute final track "All You Can Eat Breadsticks", a slowly shifting soundscape of mastication, clinking silverware and piping hot loaves!
MPEG Stream: "All You Can Eat Breadsticks (excerpt)"

ORANGE TWIN Field Works Volume One (Orange Twin) cd 13.98
Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum travelled to Bulgaria in August of 2000 and came back with this aural document of the Koprivshtitsa Festival. Impossibly high female voices arch over droning pipes and strings, at times in a chorus like chattering, and at times just one solo voice wailing bravely above all else. Male singers and manic strings explode into folk songs, full of energy and swing. The feel of this record is very on-the-street and raw, like the Sun City Girls' recordings made in SE Asia, or the "Ho! Roady Music from Vietnam" disc we love so much, yet the recording quality is surprisingly clean and crisp (i.e. you won't be disappointed). Mangum contributes some minimal layering and processing on a computer.
RealAudio clip: "(excerpt)"

PINKHOUSE, JOHNY Bad Acetate: 1949-1999, 50 Fabulous Years In The Soleilmoon Lounge (Soleilmoon) cd 9.98

PRIME, MICHAEL L-Fields (Sonoris) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Field recordings of hallucinogenic plants. Really, that's quite literally what this is. And though it wouldn't be the type of thing I'd expect hallucinogenic plants to sound like, or what I would choose to listen to while imbibing hallucinogens, it's a great recording. Prime uses the minute voltages of bioelectrical impulses from Cannabis Sativa (pot), Amanita Muscaria (shrooms) and Lophophora Williamsii (peyote) to control battery powered oscillators and then mixes them with the ambient sounds in their locations. The results sound much like a cross between Noto, Stephen McGreevy and Chris Watson. Oddly enough, the sounds of hallucinigenic plants are also quite similar to those of Douglas Quin's Weddell Seals (also on this list) and the two recordings make a fine companion set. And as always, if you have the Sound Of North American Frogs cd, or the Conet Project, then this is for you.

QUIN, DOUGLAS Antarctica (Miramax) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally managed to get more copies of this perennial AQ favorite, but unfortunately, the only distributor we've ever been able to get them from recently went out of business so we may not be able to get them again. So don't miss out! Here's our review from way back:
If you liked "Sounds of North American Frogs" or "Insect Noise In Stored Foodstuffs", or Chris Watson's exotic animal recordings, here's another discovery we recently made in the AQ-beloved field-recordings genre.
In a blind test, it would be impossible to tell these Antarctic animal sounds from the most cutting edge experimental electronica that we sell at Aquarius! And according to the liner notes, the recordings found on this disk received no processing aside from being recorded using a "multi-headed array of hydrophones [underwater microphones]" and then mixed down (for great stereo sound). But some of the recordings, most notably the underwater recordings of Weddell seals, really seem like they could be the first installment of some new modern minimal electronic series, as they would fit in nicely next to the likes of Noto and Pan sonic. The underwater seals track features sweeping squeals like a whale song being sped up and slowed down and mixed with Stephen McGreevy's recordings of electro-magnetic atmospheric phenomena. It's as if the seals are secret knob-twiddlers in an electronic music studio. In other words, you could have a field day getting your "clicks & cuts" lovin' friends to guess who this "new avant-electronica artist" is! Also included on this cd are several recordings from the surface of the Antarctic continent as well: seal mothers and pups, Emperor & Adele penguins, a six minute track of a shattering & creaking glacier, and the brief but beautiful "Wind Harps From The Taylor Valley". This disc became a "AQ-fave recommendation" practically the minute we first heard it!! Maybe we're jaded, and have to listen to penguins frolicking to get our musical kicks, but it just seems so amazing. Wait until you hear it! Incredible and so essential.
MPEG Stream: "Wind Harps From The Taylor Valley"
MPEG Stream: "Emperor Penguins"

QUIN, DOUGLAS Caratinga (Earth Ear) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another amazing audio document from Douglas Quin, who brought us the bizarre and captivating 'Antarctica' (remember, the record that sounded like electronica, but was all actually produced by seals!). While this isn't quite so unique, it's still a pretty amazing bit of field recording, this time from the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil. The disc starts off like pretty much every relaxation record / field recording: with the sound of trickling streams, water dripping, and birds chirping. That is, until the monkeys come in. And this record -is- all about the monkeys, from the painted monkey faces on the cover to the unbelievable spectrum of noises produced by all sorts of monkeys on these recordings. The tranquil relaxation of the forest stream is interrupted by the grating grunt of the Brown Howler Monkeys: an unbelievably raw sort-of-growl that sounds remarkably like someone sawing a log in half. Thos grunts build and build into a frenzy of virtual log sawing before it tapers off into the gentle sounds of the forest again. Later in the record, there are White-bearded Manakins, a bird who, as well as producing strange high pitched chirping, also emits really loud snaps and pops, which are actually the sounds of the mechanical action of their wings. More monkeys screeching, more birds squawking, bugs, and running water finally finishes off with a gorgeous rainstorm which segues into a huge chorus of croaking frogs and toads. So nice. Quin once again proves that no matter how hard man works to make new sounds, nature can make them better (and probably already has).
RealAudio clip: "Brown Howler Monkeys"
RealAudio clip: "Woolly Spider Monkey"
RealAudio clip: "Frog Nocturne #1"

QUIN, DOUGLAS Madagascar: The Fragile Land (Miramar) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Field recording guru Douglas Quin heads off to Madagascar to record the endemic fauna of this unique island. Two half hour tracks capture the island's polar opposites: the Ranomafana, Mountain Rainforest and Berenty, The Spiny Desert. Produced by the king of nature recordings himself: Bernie Krause.

QUINTRON The Frog Tape (Skin Graft) cd 14.98
Originally sold only on cassette tape during a Halloween tour, Quintron's latest cd release, The Frog Tape, is broken into two parts -- essentially making side a, side b. The second half, or side b, is indeed field recordings of North American frogs! That's right, an entire album-side of singing frogs!! And according to Quintron, no overdubs! The musical first half of The Frog Tape reminds me of living in Philadelphia and its overall mood. It's hard to describe the kind of naive art and music that comes from a place like Philadelphia -- but this gives one the gist of it -- the antithesis of sonic refinement coupled with quasi-intelligent leanings in the realm of deranged sillyness. Perhaps imagine David Lynch's Eraserhead -- if it were a band. Hailing from New Orleans, Mr. Q has little to do directly with Philadelphia, but whenever he plays there, typically with Ms. Pussycat, it's in a dark, dirty, hot and sweaty North Philly warehouse. Quintron's music blends with the surroundings invariably transforming the space into an electromagnetically charged freakout zone. I think there are linkings that can be made between places like New Orleans and Philly... a gritty love of all things under the surface of society's pop superficiality, coming from a place that will always be held back from success, but I digress. Quintron's Frog Tape layers scuzzy sounds and fucked-up beats from Quintron's patented DrumBuddy with lo-fi art-school vocal effects and much Hammond organ. Fans of Mr. Q will find this a more moody exploration as it's seemingly intended for play on Halloween, but most enjoyable for anytime of the year. Fans of frog field recordings will rejoice with its album-side of authentic swampy frog-singing goodness!
MPEG Stream: "Scary Office"
MPEG Stream: "Frogs"

RAYMOND & PETER Shut Up, Little Man! (Shut Up Little Man Recordings) cd 13.98
Finally available again, after several years! The disc that both saddens and entertains, kind of like a cross between Charles Bukowski and the Jerky Boys!
If you've seen the Simpsons episode with John Waters, you might recall Homer asking the guest star what camp means. Waters' answer: "The comically tragic...the tragically comic." To which Homer retorts "Oh, you mean, like when a clown dies." This classic recording of San Franciscan drunks Raymond Huffmann & Peter Haskett certainly fits this Homeric definition of camp. These two aging roommates spent their days drinking heavily in their Lower Haight apartment and verbally assaulted each other. The slurring barrage of obscenities muddles the difference between the two men. This is one of those documents that had to be (re)released, capturing the torment these two unwittingly inflicted upon their enraged neighbors who in turn recorded their every conversation. Worthy of its status as a late-twentieth century underground "comedy" phenomenon.

REYNOLS Blank Tapes (Trente Oiseaux) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Allan asked our friendly Forced Exposure rep (known to some as Hrvatski, Keith to others) what seemed to be a reasonable question: "So is that Reynols cd any good?" Keith's deadpan response, "It's blank tapes." Allan, phrasing the question a little differently, "Well, what does it sound like?" Again the response over the phone, "It's really just blank tapes." A silence persisted from Allan who was baffled and trying to formulate the next question. Keith then responded, "Look we got a lot of these things, so take as many as you want!" making his pronouncement of the ridiculousness of this record as well as his desire to get rid of them.
But let's face it: Reynols isn't one guy. It's a band with three people, recording the sound of blank tapes. They are from Argentina. They previously made a recording of 10,000 chickens. And you know what, you can actually hear these blank tapes, with more going on then the average Trente Oiseaux record (i.e. Bernhard Gunter, Steve Roden, and Francisco Lopez). Furthermore, it's really great.
RealAudio clip: "blank tapes 3"

REYNOLS Rampotanza Grodo Rempelente (Locust) cd 14.98
In their "Met Life" series, Locust Records has commissioned experimental artists to produce a field recording of a dynamic aural evironment and then respond to that recording using any methods of their choosing. So, the Argentinian out-rock ensemble Reynols presents the sounds of city workers in Buenos Aires jackhammering a ditch in a busy city street. While Reynols could be implying that this field recording is an obtuse channelling from Minecxio -- that's the mythical alternate dimension that Reynols have cited as the source of their 'musical' ideas, which have included in the past a symphony for 10,000 chickens and an album comprised entirely of blank tape (which is anything but silent). However, Reynols' field recording of jackhammers seems pretty straight. Their "response" to this field recording is another matter altogether. With gritty guitar noise freakouts lurking in the distance, Reynols sets up a psych-fug throb of primal percussion, close-fisted organ arpeggiations, and bellowing trumpets, turning the pneumatic monotony of the jackhammer into an atypical, instrumental waltz of cosmic melodies and drunken rhythms.
MPEG Stream: "Rampotanza Ronil Grodorempelente"
MPEG Stream: "Rampotanza Ronil Grodo Rempelente: Response"

ROCHE, JEAN C. Le Monde Des Singes 1 (Primate World 1) (Sittelle) cd 16.98
There always seems to be labels vying for the coveted position of coolest record label in the world. EM in Japan of course, with their insane array of amazing, and amazingly packaged reissues. aRCHIVE is a contender, with outrageously deluxe packaging and some of the coolest weirdest music out there. There's PseudoArcana, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, and let's not forget Andee's tUMULt label. But France's Sittelle label constantly blow us away, and are inching ever closer to being the one.
C'mon, there was the rutting red deer disc, a whole record of deers mating, that sounds as amazing as you might imagine. Then there was the insane Bats record, two whole discs, one of normal recordings, the other of slowed down bat sounds, coupled with a massive book! Cicadas and Crickets was another great one, transporting us to some filed in the middle of nowhere. Bizarre Birds? Indeed, an outrageous collection of, well, bizarre bird sounds. And finally, Pastoral Bells, one of our all time favorites, the sounds of cowbells, drifting over the hills as cows wander and graze, so gorgeous and tranquil.
And as if it couldn't get any better, they bring us MONKEYS!!! You may not know how obsessed we are with monkeys, but WE ARE!!! (Andee even got to hand feed monkeys when he was in Japan!!) WE LOVE MONKEYS!!! But this is no ordinary collection of monkey sounds, these sounds are amazing, and amazingly varied, some do in fact sound like monkeys, but some sound like sirens, some like strange electronics, some even like black metal.
And like most of the stuff on Sittelle, it's not just the sounds, but the surroundings, the sonic bed in which the sounds exist. Here, it's the sound of the jungle, a lush, living thing, crickets and insets, a nearly constant buzz, birds chirping, the sound of wind, leaves, branches, that would almost be enough even without the monkeys, and come to think of it pretty sure there's at least one or two discs on Sittelle specifically of jungle sounds...
But monkeys is why we're here and the monkeys represented here are remarkable. There's the hooting Siamangs, engaged in an intricate call and response, multiple monkey calls piling up into confusional squalls. Then there's the Lar Gibbons, who alternately whistle, trill like birds, or scream like a frightened hysterical woman. How about the Male Orangutans who sound nothing like Clyde from Every Which Way But Loose, and instead sound a little like strange electronic whooshes and bleeps. Almost like a human making video game sounds. There are the chimps, whose calls are the most recognizable of the bunch, but who also have a call that sounds like a screaming woman or a mewing kitten. Then there are mountain gorillas, who grunt and pant, and growl a little like wild dogs. Then it gets strange. The Black Colobus, who groans like a wizened old man, or croaks like some giant frog, and sometimes sounds like Popeye, the calls separated by what sound like a very human grunts and coughs. Then there are the howlers, whose tracks, complete with the haunting forest backdrop, sound almost like Abruptum, some haunting black metal ambience, distant groans and growls, a drawn out demonic rasp, whispering like the wind, a growling monstrous rumble, very intense and ominous sounding.
And there's more. WAY more. Far too much to describe here. But all of it fascinating and bizarre and funny and completely amazing. And the most remarkable thing about these discs, is they are somehow not just "nature recordings", they are recorded, and sequenced, and presented in a way that makes them eminently listenable. It is more than the sounds of nature, it is a strange form of natural music, the music of nature. It can transport us to some far away jungle, some lost world, or it can just fill our ears with strange and wonderful sounds. Either way, this is a fantastic listen. Surprisingly musical, totally mysterious and so great!
As with all Sittelle releases, included is a big booklet with extensive liner notes in both English and French, which includes detailed notes on each track and on each type of monkey!
MPEG Stream: "Family Of Siamangs"
MPEG Stream: "Pair Of Lar Gibbons"
MPEG Stream: "Harem Of Proboscis Monkeys"
MPEG Stream: "Group Of Chimpanzees"
MPEG Stream: "Group Of Black Colobus"
MPEG Stream: "Two Mantled Howlers"

ROCHE, JEAN C. & NELLY DESESQUELLE Bizarre Birds (Droles D'Oiseaux) (Sittelle) 2cd 35.00
THESE ARE SOME WEIRD BIRDS!
France's Sittelle label (home to Bats, Rutting Red Deer, Cicadas And Crickets, and loads and loads of Frogs, among other wonderful nature recordings) blows us away yet again with this double cd, that they (in English) call Bizarre Birds. They got that right. Well we don't know if these birds are funny-lookin' or not, but these sure aren't your average birdcalls. No sir. Spread over two whole discs, you get an amazing plethora of examples of our feathered friends opening their beaks and making some freakin' strange sounds. Each one stranger than the previous, it seems, over the 68 tracks on on disc one, and 55 on disc two. It's an international selection, these birds of six continents... from the Canada's Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker to the Venezuelan Horned Screamer; from the Laughing Kookaburra of Australia to Finland's Common Snipe. Together at last! In all, there's 84 bird species represented, over two hours of audio, with 39 of the tracks being "slowed-down" replays allowing the listener to discern additional "hidden music" in the birdcalls.
We've said this before about some other out-there nature field recordings we've heard (the droning SE Asian insects of Broken Hearted Dragonflies, the underwater penguins of Douglas Quin's sadly out of print Antarctica, the alluded-to-above The Inaudible World - A Sound Guide Of The French Bats): it sounds like cutting-edge experimental electronic music. And it's true. Some of the birds here DO sound like birds, for sure. But some of the others... is it a dog? A monkey? A demonic baby? A piece of industrial machinery? A spaceship??
We don't think that a team of sound FX specialists armed with a roomful of synths could replicate some of these wacky noises. Yet as weird as these are, there are also many examples that possess the beauty commonly attributed to birdsong. Just in their own special way. Anybody remember the Waldamsel / Forest Blackbird album we sold so many of years ago? Well this is like that but just... a lot more bizarre!
As with most Sittelle products, this comes with a thick cd booklet. Usually they're packed with a lot of explanatory text. This one's a bit different, instead we're provided with basic info on each bird/track (scientific and common name, geographic region, slow motion ratio if slowed down) plus also quite a few amusingly goofy cartoon-styled illustrations of some of the birds, in color!
MPEG Stream: "European Storm-Petrel"
MPEG Stream: "Cory's Shearwater"
MPEG Stream: "Crested Oropendola, slowed 2 times"
MPEG Stream: "Hoopoo Lark"
MPEG Stream: "Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo, slowed 4 times"
MPEG Stream: "Green Catbird"

RUNAWAY TRAIN (Ash International) lp 9.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A riveting real time radio transmission recording between a controller of the Canadian Railways and the operator of a runaway train... and that's all. But man, what a field recording!! Destined to go into our new Found Sounds section, alongside The Conet Project, Sounds of North American Frogs, Stephen P. McGreevy's recordings of the aurora borealis, and that guy who dreams out loud.

S.E.T.I. Pod (Ash International) cd 15.98
"Pod" is the final installment to Andrew Lagowski's alien trilogy, which has dealt with the secrecy surrounding extra-terrestrial intelligence and the so-called Grey Projects of research & development of the defense applications of ET technology. Thematically, Lagowski posits a different metaphor for "Pod" away from the control of information and closer to an escape mentality that was embraced by the members of the Heaven's Gate cult. Within this context, Lagowski has crafted an evocative collage of crackling VLF recordings, air-traffic control transmissions of UFO sightings, and other cosmic transmissions.

SANTA POD s/t (Ash International R.I.P.) cd 15.98
'Get ready for drag-racing MAYHEM... Mayhem... mayhem... ummm do we really have to keep badgering them like this?' - Smithers OK, do not dismiss this as just a field recording of drag races (even though that is what it is). While the blasts of drag racing noise tear bi-aurally across this CD of field recordings from the Santa Pod Raceway in Podington, England on the site of an old American airbase, it is the constant ridiculous banter of the announcer whose barely audible / poorly-transmitted-through-a-crappy-speaker rants have captured the essence of the drag-racing. Certainly in the tradition of the 'Sounds of North American Frogs', 'The Conet Project', 'The Ghost Orchid', and 'One of One', this is brilliant.

SAPERA Snake Charmers of North India (Bona-Fi) cd 14.98
Got some of this old favorite back in stock, thought we'd list it again in case you'd missed it. Previously we wrote: The image of a pungi player hypnotically swaying the end of his instrument in front of a cobra portrayed in Western books and films is a fairly accurate one" says this disc's notes, and while that may justify this one Western preconception, it does nothing to prepare for how weird and wonderful the music from snake charmers really is. The three different instruments used by snake charmers (the oboe-like pungi and the rhythmic instruments premtal and kanyeri) provide not so much of a sexy sway as one might think, but a herky-jerky set of bobbing rhythms and an odd stop-start style of reed playing. Andee has likened it to the hard disc editing of Oval, Pita, and Jim O'Rourke but played live! Perhaps the snakes are Mego fans... This is a pretty spectacular collection of mysterious and stirring sound. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Theka Talin"
MPEG Stream: "Melody From The Film Phagun"

SEMPER, JONTY Kenotaphion (Charrm) 2cd 18.98
"Kenotaphion" is one of the most unusual collections of archival recordings to pass through the Aquarius doors, as British artist Jonty Semper has culled through the archives at BBC, British Movietone, and ITN Reuters for recordings of the 2 minutes of communal silence. This ritual heralds back to November 11, 1919 to commemorate the Armistice of World War I when all of England literally stopped for two minutes of silence - the trains came to a halt, telephone relays were shut down, schools paused in the middle of lectures, everything except for the media. BBC radio would broadcast these public displays of silence, capturing the mighty bell tolls of Big Ben and a massive multiple gun salute followed by the environmental ambience at that exact moment. BBC didn't just turn off their signal, they captured the sounds around the Houses of Parliament: rain, birds, wind, etc. As various sources had recorded these memorial silences dating back to 1929, the recorded medium becomes apparant on a number of the older recordings, as scratchy surface noise and tape hiss. Thus these silences are not exactly silent.
Semper was not content to simply collect the solemn silences bracketed by the chiming of Big Ben and the crack of the rifles, he interspersed them with snippets of narration uttered by the BBC commentators, often poetic, yet certainly sentimental thoughts spoken in the finest of Queen's English. Disc one features the oldest recordings (1929 - 1965) and ripples with tons of surface noise, yet as the microphone technology improved through the later recordings (1967 - 2000) the quiet din of London trying to be silent makes itself known. A strangely alluring record.
RealAudio clip: "November 12, 1934"
RealAudio clip: "November 14, 1934"
RealAudio clip: "November 9, 1980"
RealAudio clip: "November 14, 1999"

SHATNER, WILLIAM The Transformed Man (Varese Sarabande/BMG) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally (legally) reissued.

SHIRAISHI, TAMIO & SEAN MEEHAN In The City (Fusetron) 12" 14.98